My fingers burned to rip that sucker open and see what he had to say, but it wasn’t addressed to me, and wasn’t my business. To take my temptation away, I slid it under the stack of mail. You know, out of sight, out of mind. Yeah, right.

The front door opened, the screen door slamming shut.

"Don’t slam the door, moron. How many times does mom have to tell you?"

"Shut up. What’s for dinner?" Chris dropped his football equipment on the living room floor, and sauntered into the kitchen. He looked more like our mom, medium brown hair and brown eyes. I had gotten the blonde hair and green eyes from our father, a.k.a. the sperm donor.

"Well, funny that. Mom told me she wants you to make it." I grinned, licking the apple juices off the knife I had used on my snack.

"What?" he turned to look at me, milk carton halfway to his mouth. I nodded. "Yup. She said how will you make anyone a good husband someday if you don’t know your way around a kitchen."

"You don’t know your way around it." He drank, then slammed the container back onto the fridge shelf.

"You wish. Anyway, I’m off to start studying. She left instructions on the counter." I hurried out of the kitchen, bounding up the stairs two at a time.

My room was filled with everything that was me. A huge poster of Albert Einstein hung over my computer. A lava lamp was my bedside lamp, and of course a poster of my hero, Han Cha Kyo, on the back of my door. He was a Tae Kwon Do master who had achieved 9th Dan, highest honor in Tae Kwon Do. He was the Grand Master. My Sabum Nim had been devastated when he’d died in 1996. All my ti’s from white up to my black belt, were folded over the mirror on my dresser.

Of course one of my biggest accomplishments was the three shelves holding my collection of Beanie Babies next to my closet. Hey, every girl has her vice.

I plopped down on my floor, clicking the stereo on first, then spread out all my books and papers. Pencil in my mouth, I began to study and work on my pre-calc homework, and started on my psychology project. I hated psych, but had no choice but to take it. It all made no sense to me. How do you feel about your mother. Who cares? It wasn’t due until the end of the semester, but I figured I’d better start on it now before I let the Procrastinator overtake me.

"I’ll be back," I muttered in my best Arnie impression.

As the music played on, I wrote down questions, answering more, until all my math was finished, and I could fully concentrate on my psych. Mrs. Fields wanted us to do a project where we compare and contrast. Compare and contrast what?

With a sigh I sat back against the side of my bed, looked out the window. The sun was beginning to sit low in the sky, the bright, intense rays of sundown nearly blinding me. I was shocked to see it was nearly six.

"Yo, dipshit! Dinner!" Chris yelled from downstairs. I grinned at my cleverness, and tossed my pencil aside to go eat.

* * *

The shrillness of the bell hurried everyone along to their next class, the chatter, hurried footsteps and slamming metal locker doors nearly deafening as I made my way to AP English with the ever nutty, ex- hippie Mrs. Graham. Though I didn’t much care for the subject, with her you couldn’t help but learn and enjoy yourself. Her soft spoken way, but intelligent and insightful way of looking at writers and literature was refreshing and amusing. If my passion wasn’t so strongly set in science and medicine, I may have tried a different path, with English a stop on the way.

The walk home today was even colder than the day before, the tale-tell signs of winter with the infant stages of leaves turning. It would come early this year for sure. One thing I have to give my father credit for. Before he and my mother split when I was eleven, he would take me out and we’d go look at all the trees and plants around this time of year. He taught me what to look for when the seasons began to change.

It would be a cold bike ride to work, that was for sure. When I got off at seven it would be even worse. Definitely time to pull out the sweaters.

"Hey, honey. How was your day?" My mom sat on the couch reading the newest Reader’s Digest.

"Hi." I plopped down next to her, her arm automatically reaching around to play with my hair, my head going to her shoulder. "My day was okay. Long. You?" My mom leaned her cheek against the top of my head.

"It was okay. My only day off this week with Vicki quitting. I absolutely refused to be productive today. I don’t understand why they think they don’t have to hire any more nurses when one quits. I mean, do they honestly think we all can cover for one less body?"

"I’m sorry, mom. They’re rich assholes who care about the almighty buck instead of their employees or patients." My mom took her head from mine, looking at me.

"How on earth did you get so pessimistic?" I grinned with a shrug. "Well, you are right, though." She sighed. "Norman is after me again to go work for him in his private practice. The money wouldn’t be as good, but the hours would be a lot better."

"Well," I pulled away from her so I could look into her tired face. "If it comes down to keeping your sanity or making the big bucks, I don’t really see the choice, you know?" She smiled, hugging me.

"Go get a snack. Made fresh brownies." My face automatically brightened.

"Ghirardelli?" She nodded. "Score!" I hopped up, nearly tripping on my face in my haste to get my hands on the chocolate.

"So what’s your plans for tonight?" I held up a hand, my mouth too full of the sweetness from the cocoa bean to answer. My mom walked over to the counter to get herself a cup of coffee.

"I have to go in to work. Marty called off."

"Oh. Well, why don’t you take the car tonight? It’s getting too cold for you to ride. The last thing I need is a sick Andrea on my hands."

"Thanks. I really wasn’t looking forward to it." Leaning against the counter, we were both quiet for a moment, me eating, her sipping. "Where’s Chris?"

"Over at Brian’s, that new family that moved in. He’s become pretty good buds with him." Shrugging my indifference, I grabbed the keys from the coat rack.

"I have to go. I’ll see you later."

"I love you, hon. Be careful."

"I love you, too. Will do. Later."

* * *

I lay on my bed, my ankles crossed as I stared up at my ceiling, the glow in the dark stars there twinkling at me as I listened to my Eagles Greatest Hits CD. Work had been hectic, all three hours of it. I worked at Rothman Labs as an assistant, and loved it. Right now we were working on samples from an asbestos clean up at the elementary school. It felt good to relax and clear the brain, especially since it was Thursday, my favorite day, since that meant tomorrow was Friday.

The phone rang, but I let my mom or Chris get it. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. Not that it would be for me, anyway.

Knock, knock.

"Andrea, honey. Phone." My mom said softly on the other side of the door. Looking at the closed door with a shocked expression on my face.

"What?" The door opened, and my mom entered, holding the cordless phone out to me. I took it, and my mom hurried out of my room. I looked at it for a second like it was a snake that would bite me. Was it my grandmother?

"Hello?"

"Hi, um, is this Andi?"

"Yeah," I totally didn’t recognize the girl’s voice on the other end.

"I’m really sorry to bother you. This is Haley Corregan." My brows drew. What the… "My test is tomorrow, and to be honest, I’m starting to really freak out. I didn’t see you in the library after school, so I didn’t know how else to get a hold of you."

"You want help?" I asked, laying back down on my bed, one leg up, the other ankle crossed over my knee. There was silence on the other end of the phone for a moment, then in a tiny voice,

"Yes." I couldn’t keep the grin from my face.

"Okay. Do you know where I live?"

"No. The school directory just has your phone number."

"Oh, okay. Well I live right on the corner of Theo and Lark."

"Really? That’s only about six blocks away from me."

"Well good. You won’t have far to go."

"Thanks, Andi. I really appreciate this."

"No problem. See you soon."

I clicked the off button on my phone, and sighed. Wow. Haley Corregan is coming to my house.

"Shit."

I popped up, looked around my room to see what mess there was. Not bad, but I still shoved any bit of clothing from the floor into my hamper, stacking my books on my dresser instead of spread all across the floor as usual.

I heard the doorbell chime, and checked myself in the mirror, smoothing my cowlick down before looking down at myself. I wore shiny green soccer shorts with a white tank, my feet bare.

"Andrea!"

"Yeah, yeah," I mumbled, hurrying toward the door, opening it just in time to hear,

"So, do you like brownies?" Rolling my eyes, I hurried down the stairs to see Haley standing just inside the door in a pair of flannel pants, sneakers and a heavy coat. She looked up at the noise my hurried steps made. My mom disappeared to the kitchen.

"Hey," she said. I waved. "I’m getting a brownie." She smiled, obviously happy about this.

"Well, as long as you can listen and review at the same time, we’ll be fine."

My mom hurried over to us with a plate stacked with little brownie squares and two napkins.

"Thank you, Mrs.," she looked at me.

"Littman."

"Littman." She smiled, as did my mother.

"Theresa, and enjoy. You two have fun." She turned to head back downstairs where the TV was on.